Plot
The film depicts a stretch of single-track railway, along which a slow train runs through a mountainous terrain on an embankment on a lake and a yacht with a tunnel in the background. The train passes the signal on the road and then stops. While the train begins reversing back up the track, an express train leaves the tunnel in front, collides with the other train and both are thrown down the embankment.Production and premise
Frederick A. Talbot, writing in 1912, records that "the scene of the accident was a field, in which the scenery was erected with considerable care, and a long length of model railway track was laid down, while the trains were good toy models." According to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, it "is one of the earliest examples of this technique in practice". Brooke notes that "unlike some of his other films of the period, Booth does not attempt to enhance the effect by intercutting obviously full-scale material, though his successors would undoubtedly have added a shot inside a carriage full of screaming passengers." Despite the contrived nature of the scenario and the basic nature of the model work, viewers appear to have found its depiction convincing. Talbot comments that "many people marvelled at Paul's good fortune in being the first on the scene to photograph such a disaster. They were convinced that it was genuine." He calls the film "forty of the most thrilling seconds it is possible to conceive" and praises it for rendering a disaster that was "perfect in its swiftness and wreckage; and the cinematograph film images being less sharp and decisive than those obtained by a hand camera, the illusion was conveyed very convincingly."Special effects
''A Railway Collision'' is one of the first examples of implementing the technique of recreating large-scale disasters into a much smaller one using miniature scale models. It served as an important base from which more impressive special effects could be integrated into a story. In spite of the artificial and basic aspect of the nature of the scenario of the model work, the spectators of that time seem to have found it convincing.Reception
The film was a commercial success and was widely pirated in the United States. It was only long, as it was designed to be played with aReferences
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Railway Collision, A 1900 films 1900s British films British black-and-white films Films about railway accidents and incidents 1900 drama films Articles containing video clips Films directed by Walter R. Booth Silent British drama short films Trick films